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Danielle S

Having worked in the deans office of a law school this is a question I have frequently been asked. The first thing to understand is that each school has different requirements, but here are some basic tips that apply to majority of law schools.

Hopefully you have already been preparing for the LSAT (if not already have taken it at least once). This score is very important to law schools. The higher your score, the better your chance of getting into law school. In my experience a ranking law school would like to see a score of about 160 or better. The higher the school ranks, the higher the median score. However, your LSAT score is not the only thing law school admission councils are looking for. You want to have a variety of activities and organizations that you are or have been active in. No need to go over board and have six pages of extracurricular activities, just enough to show your are active and diverse. Again some schools that rank higher are looking for the over-achiever, straight A, 180 LSAT score candidate. If that is not you, no worries - there are ranked law schools who are looking for humans and not robots.

If your LSAT score is on the lower side, it would be encouraging to have a GPA on the higher side (above a 3.0). This shows you are competent and that maybe you just didn't do well on the LSAT. It doesn't hurt to send in a short essay on why you are a good fit for the law school your applying to (if they don't already require a similar essay). A good reference can go along way also. Having a reference that may be a professor, highly ranked employee, or alumni of the school of your choice can possible sway a vote.